With four starters gone, Rick Barnes has lots to replace for the 2019-20 men’s Tennessee basketball season. Here are our Volunteers’ roster projections.
Gone are the three leading scorers, two leading rebounders and leading assists man for Tennessee basketball from last year. Back are two guards who averaged in double figures, a series of role players looking take a major leap, and a center who is healthy after missing all of last season.
Arriving are four recruits, two forwards and two guards headlined by a five-star combo guard, and a transfer center looking for eligibility to play this year. These guys make up Rick Barnes’s collection of talent for his fifth team on Rocky Top. But how will he arrange it all?
As we get set to project the 2019-2020 two-deep depth chart for Tennessee basketball, the lineup won’t be a one-one starter and bench player on each slide. Sure, we’ll go for each position from point guard to center.
But there will be a couple of positions where the true No. 2 option is starting somewhere else. Barnes has to shift some things around given his personnel, and that level of shifting does give this team hope to bet good this year. It just also makes the depth chart a bit confusing.
However, we’ll still be able to go two-deep. It’s just the No. 2 option will be an extra player meant for another position since, as we said, the two options for one position could both be starting, knocking out one position elsewhere.
Yes, that was a major jumble of words. But that’s how complex the roster is. Whomever gets the most playing time is also wildly up in the air outside of a few key spots. It depends on how ready the freshmen are and who still on the roster developed from last year to this year.
So which players will emerge from that cluster? How will Barnes configure his lineup? It’s time for us to break that down here. This is our two-deep depth chart projection for Tennessee basketball ahead of the Vols’ 2019-2020 season.